Wings of Honor: Deciding Destiny

Chapter 1: Botched Landing

I saw it.

I saw it a long time ago.
I should have told him.
I should have told him.
I saw it.
I tried to tell him.
He wouldn't listen.
I should have shown him.
But he wouldn't listen.
I saw it.
But he wouldn't listen.
He couldn't listen.

I tried to tell him, but he wouldn't listen.

Tears flooded my eyes, I couldn't see anymore. I was sobbing. I couldn't breathe. My wings kept powering us forward, I couldn't control them.
Travers and McManis were in complete disarray on my back, trying to understand what the fuck just happened. Their minds going a million miles per hour. Images, emotions, fire, anger, destruction, utter chaos.
I couldn't close off my mind, I was engulfed by fear too. I couldn't look back to see if we were being followed. I could only see forward, as the land quickly flowed underneath me. I felt him fade further and further away. The last thing I felt of him was an intense burst of fear, and then I fell out of range. I still couldn't see, the tears making everything blurred. I couldn't move, I couldn't do anything. I couldn't go back for him.

He was gone.
He sent us away.
He sent me away.

I started sobbing again, and it all became worse. My chest burned, sucking itself and feeling like I got slammed by a tree. My wings burned. My eyes burned. Everything hurt. This was the worst kind of pain I had ever faced. My heart itself felt ripped apart.
Travers was in utter shock. He didn't move the entire time since we left.
McManis, also in shock, kept talking. He kept trying to maintain some semblance of order. I felt the fear eating him alive, talking was the only way he knew how to keep it from killing him.
"Travers. You're," he wiped the tears from his face. "You're okay. We're okay. We're fine. We aren't shot, we're okay." Then he looked around. "Fuck." He mumbled. He leaned over me to try and see the ground. "Where are we going?" He called to me. "Grace?"
I couldn't move, but I could still speak. "I don't know. Somewhere North. Northeast?"
I didn't know exactly, but I kind-of knew where I stood in my mental map. It helped with navigation and was way better than even Marvin's ability to maintain his bearing. But it was still all engulfed under the fog of emotion and stress.
"Shit." McManis kept cursing. He looked around one more time. Spotting Travers, he spun himself around to face him, still on my back. "Hey. Travers. You still with me?"
He didn't respond. He couldn't respond. His mind was whited out. He was frozen. I think McManis recognized that because he gave up on what effort he was about to exert on him.
"Shit."
He turned back forward, looking at the sky ahead. Then he leaned over to grab something out of my vest. The glasses probably, because then he put his hands up to his head and scanned around.
"Where the fuck are we going?" He mumbled.
I gulped my fear down, tasting the metallic pang my spit now had. I was so scared, it was showing there too. Everything trembled. I felt my wings tremble, my claws kept twitching, and the tip of my tail kept trying to curl back in on itself. But I couldn't move. I just took a long, shaky, terrified breath.
We kept flying.

We kept flying until the green grass and trees faded away.

We kept flying, as the sun became hotter and hotter on our backs.

We kept flying, even past when the dirt dried up, fading into leeched golden sand.

We were in The Kingdom of Sand.

"Shiiiiiit." McManis cursed in between swigs.
Travers did not say anything.
I couldn't say anything.
My wings suddenly dropped, the exhaustion suddenly engulfing my entire being as I regained control. All of my energy was sapped out, all of it, all at once. I dropped like a stone.
McManis cried out, and Travers sounded for the first time alongside him.
I tried to flare, with the sand coming up fast. It was just like being teleported here, only now I was barely prepared, exhausted, and fueled only by adrenaline. I flared my wings as hard as I could, dropping ever faster, straight down. I couldn't try to fly, I couldn't take it. I just locked my wings, hoping to glide. But I had lost all my altitude, and speed with it.
A mound of yellow rose up and filled my vision. I knew what was going to happen. I closed my eyes, flaring as hard as I could.
Too well.
My wings caught an updraft. We flew up and over the dune, then stalled immediately. I glided down into the next dune, unable to maneuver. Another mound caught my right wingtip, digging in and causing me to roll.
I flared last minute, catapulting the terrified men into the sand, and dooming myself to crash land and roll down the mountain of sand. I brought in my wings, bracing as much as I could.
It was a terrible crash.
Sand and sky intermingled, then engulfed by yellow clouds. My entire body lit up with burning aching from the impact, my breath, and remaining strength long gone. Still, I immediately struggled to my legs. Trembling, weak legs.
"McManis! Travers!" I called.
Two shapes materialized from the dunes. The poor soldiers bathed in dust, consolidating themselves before sounding off.
We all collectively gathered at the base of the little dune valley. I collapsed, half from exhaustion, at the base, huffing away a cloud of sand.
"Are... are you alright Grace?" McManis came up to me.
I sighed, gritting my teeth from the pain. "Been better."
Travers now joined us, stumbling absentmindedly down towards me. He collapsed to sit against me, his eyes wide in a distant stare skyward.
I looked back at McManis, who paced a little past me. I heard something click in his mind.
We're safe.
But then I felt his mind boil over.
"No, no, no, NO." He threw his helmet at the ground. "YOU STUPID BASTARD!" McManis pointed at the sky. "WE COULD HAVE TAKEN THEM! WE'VE HANDLED WORSE! WE MADE IT THIS FAR! WE WERE TOGETHER! WE COULD HAVE TAKEN THEM!"
He stopped for a moment, gasping for breath.
Then McManis tore off his backpack, throwing it onto the sand.
"FUCK!"
He threw down his rifles, bandoliers, grenades.
"DAMN IT CAPTAIN!"
He tore into his backpack, pulling out his things and throwing them forcibly into the sand.
"FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!"
His ammo, rations, sleeping bag, medical kit. He didn't stop until everything was strewn against the golden sand.
Only then did he stop. Breathing fast and sharp, gritting his teeth.
Then, he whimpered softly. "Why did you abandon us, Marvin?" He fell to his knees, sitting back. "Why did you abandon me, Pete?"
I heard his sobs. He rested his face into his hands.
Then I heard a soft rustling. Travers got up to his feet, looking to be fighting tears himself, and he slowly walked up to McManis. He sat down beside him, putting his arm around him, and also began to cry.
With a grunt, I forced my burning legs to carry me just for a little longer. I dragged myself up next to them, draping my wing over them. My tail curled up around them. I couldn't hold them close, only be their cover support. But with what little I could do.
It was then that sadness broke through. I fought it off as best I could, but now it won. Tears ran down my cheeks, falling on the warming sand. I hushed my crying, listening to the muffled sobs of the soldiers.
We were all broken. Mind, body, and soul.
But we were broken together.